Texas should ask not whether to require Bible reading in schools — but why

(RNS) — Last week, the Texas State Board of Education approved a mandatory reading list for its public schools. The change making the most headlines is the new curriculum requirement for Language Arts that includes Bible stories and passages from the Bible. Countless Christians (and others) are now weighing in on whether or not the Bible should be required reading in public schools given the pluralistic character of our nation.

Whether or not the Bible should be required reading in public schools isn’t the right question, however. Nor is it the most pressing one for Christians.

What texts are taught (and what ones are excluded) is an important matter, of course. So, too, is the separate matter of the qualifications of the teachers who teach the material. But a teacher who is qualified to teach Dr. Suess or Shakespeare is just as qualified (or not) to teach the Bible as literature.

Reading lists — whether such lists pertain to required, recommended or removed texts — are perennially controversial. Any core curriculum by its very nature creates a tension between two competing goods: cultivating a communal body of knowledge and giving freedom to teachers, classrooms and schools…